Keep your family
and water safe from mercury: Recycle fluorescent tubes and
compact fluorescent light bulbs at your local household
hazardous waste facility and participating drop-off sites.
Fluorescent
lamps save energy!!
Compared
to standard incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps can reduce
energy consumption by 50% and lighting costs by 30-38
percent. Fluorescent lamps last, on an average, 10 times
longer than conventional lamps.
Fluorescent
lamps contain mercury, so dispose of them correctly.
Improper
lamp disposal is a human health and water pollution problem,
because lamps broken in landfills or at home release mercury -
a potent neurotoxin. Dispose of used fluorescent lamps at your
local household hazardous waste collection centers. These
centers send fluorescent lamps to specialized recycling
facilities where the mercury in them is recovered for reuse,
rather than escaping into the environment and polluting our
water. (Note: fluorescent bulbs are safe to use)
Where
to take used fluorescent lamps:
You can drop off
your used fluorescent lamps at several retail stores in Santa
Clara County during their normal business hours. Click
here for a list of stores offering this facility.
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How
else can you help reduce mercury pollution?
-
Buy
low-mercury fluorescent lamps - Major lighting
manufacturers now produce lamps with approximately 80
percent less mercury than standard fluorescent lamps. For
example: Philips “Alto,” GE “Ecolux” and Sylvania
“Ecologic.”
However, since none of these lamps are completely
mercury-free, they should also be disposed of at local
household hazardous waste collection centers.
-
Replace
mercury fever thermometers with non-mercury digital or
glass gallium-indium-tin (galinstan) thermometers -
The standards of accuracy for non-mercury thermometers are
the same as those for mercury thermometers.
-
Recycle
mercury containing thermometers, thermostats, and
batteries - Because mercury is a good conductor of
electricity and is the only metal that is liquid at room
temperature, it is used in household products like
thermometers, thermostats, and batteries. All of these are accepted at local
household hazardous waste collection centers and should be
turned in there.
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What
should you do if a mercury-containing product breaks in your
home?
If
you spill mercury in your home:
-
Turn off the
heating or air conditioning and ventilate the room to the
outdoors.
-
Avoid touching
the mercury with your bare hands and do not vacuum the
spill.
-
Using a
medicine dropper, collect the mercury and place the
mercury and the dropper in an airtight container.
-
Take the
mercury to your local household hazardous waste facility
or collection event.
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More
Mercury Information:
-
Mercury is a
potent nerve toxin and can affect the brain and nervous
systems. Pregnant women and young children are most
susceptible to mercury poisoning. It can also affect fetal
development, causing birth defects.
-
Mercury
released into the environment is transported by air, rain,
snow or runoff and deposited in our creeks and Bay.
Bacteria convert it into a form that is easily absorbed by
microscopic animals and plants, which in turn are consumed
by larger animals. You can get exposed to mercury by
consuming mercury-contaminated fish.
-
The U.S. Food
and Drug Administration has issued a nationwide consumer
advisory that children and nursing mothers should not eat
shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or ocean whitefish
because of mercury contamination.
-
Each year,
broken and landfilled fluorescent lamps in the Bay Area
release enough mercury vapors to contaminate a water body
almost as big as Lake Tahoe.
-
Due to the San
Francisco Bay mercury contamination, it is recommended
that adults eat no more than two servings of fish from the
Bay per month.
-
Five of
California's largest grocery retailers have begun
displaying signs cautioning consumers about the dangers of
mercury in fish. The signs, hung near fish counters,
advise women and children to not eat swordfish and shark,
and to limit consumption of fresh tuna.
-
Mercury harms
aquatic life too. Information from the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service indicates that mercury in sediment may
cause increased mortality and deformities of rainbow trout
embryos.
-
The US EPA:
http://www.epa.gov/mercury
-
Non–mercury
alternatives to consumer products: http://www.deq.state.mi.us/documents/deq-ead-p2-mercury-consumer.doc
-
Mercury
In Schools - In 1999, University of Wisconsin
Extension’s Solid and Hazardous Waste Education Center (SHWEC)
provides information about the mercury in schools project.
Helpful
Mercury Fact
Sheets:
Keep your
Family and Water Safe from Mercury
Keep
your Business Safe from Mercury
EPA
Factsheet on Mercury in Compact Fluorescent Lamps
